Earth Education UK

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Monday, 2 May 2016

Evaluating
High Quality Outdoor Learning Experiences.

In earth education we have spent a great deal of time
creating very high quality learning experiences to help our participants
develop a relationship with the natural world, to understand the broad principles
of how our world works and to identify ways in which our own everyday lives are
impacting on these life support systems and enabling them to make an informed
commitment to reducing their negative impact on the planet to whatever degree
they choose.

These activities have been crafted, piloted, honed and
polished so we know that they work. This has not always been the case in other
fields of outdoor learning. There has been a tendency for people to assume that
if an activity takes place in the outdoors and if the youngsters enjoy it then
it must be good. With pressures on school timetables and budgets, tightening of
government budgets and increased competition for young people’s time and money
from every direction the outdoor learning movement has become a great deal more
professional and focussed across the board. This has manifested itself in
accreditations as the Quality Badge from the Council for Learning Outside the
Classroom (CLOtC). Initially focussing on safety of participants it was quickly
realised that the assessment for the badge should also look at the quality of
the learning. This together with other
pressures has given rise to a number of tools that providers can use to both
evaluate and improve their provision.

The Outdoor Education Advisors Panel (OEAP) brings together
expertise from experienced Education Advisors from Local Authority Children’s
services and they have produced a range of national guidance. www.oeapng.info . While this guidance has
tended to focus on safety in outdoor education of the physical and adventurous
sort (understandably as this is where many of the risks lie) much of this is
also relevant to those of us working in the less risky and gentler (but
nevertheless essential) field of outdoor environmental learning within both the
formal and informal sectors.

A range of organisations including AHOEC, FSC, IOL and the
Scout Association have backed the production of a summary leaflet to support
this document. (Attached). This includes a checklist which is useful for earth
educators to evaluate their own delivery of individual earth education activities
within a programme. Imagine that an onlooker, perhaps an Ofsted Inspector is
observing your group while you are conducting the activity. This checklist (below)
enables leaders to self-evaluate the learning that is going on during the
session. Even the most finely crafted earth education activities may fall short
of the highest quality depending on the leader. This checklist is being used by
several centres for each of their staff to reflect on each session straight
after they have led it. This enables reflective practitioners to look at what
they have just led from the perspective of an external observer and steadily
improve the quality of what they offer. It is designed to evaluate individual
activities as they are led. To evaluate the scope of a complete earth education
programme see “The Real World Learning Model” which I described in an earlier
blog.

A high quality outdoor learning
experience should exhibit the following

Indicator

1

The session is designed to have clear
learning outcomes that are discussed with the group from the beginning and
regularly re-visited throughout the session...

2

The session is inclusive and shows
differentiation to meet the needs of all learners within the group

3

The session leader creates a safe and positive
learning environment using an appropriate level of risk

4

The group are involved in the
discussion on safe practice and risk management of the activity.

5

The session is linked to wider
curriculum outcomes and objectives through a clear transfer of learning.

6

The activity is delivered in a way
that maximises achievement of the learning outcomes.

7

All participants play an active part
and are engaged in learning throughout the activity.

8

A positive, professional and
consistent relationship is built between the session leader and the
participants.

9

The session is well paced and shows
progression and clear development of skills, behaviour and knowledge from the
participants.

10

Participants have the opportunity to
be creative and apply what they are learning.

11

Participants can describe what they
are learning as opposed to what they are doing.

12

Reflection and review time is built in
to the session where application of learning is discussed and achievements
are recognised.